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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-09-15 Daily Xml
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LOCUST PLAGUE

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (14:49): I rise to ask a question of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. What steps are Biosecurity SA taking to prepare for the expected locust plague in South Australia this spring?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Northern Suburbs) (14:49): This spring South Australia is expecting the largest locust plague since the year 2000, which could quite possibly be the largest locust plague in 40 years. New South Wales and Victoria are facing an even greater locust threat. Earlier this year, widespread rains in south-western Queensland and north-western New South Wales in the so-called Channel country led to a significant build-up of locusts due to an abundance of green feed. Extensive egg laying occurred in South Australia's Mid North and the Riverland, Murray Mallee region. It is the first time that we have had egg laying on any scale in this area, and this was due to fly-ins from the Eastern States. So, a two-prong attack. We have never had to deal with it on two fronts; it usually comes through the north of the state.

If left unchecked, the locust plague will inflict significant damage on our agricultural and horticultural sectors, which, as many members on the other side of the house would be aware, are looking extremely promising this year, particularly after the recent rain, as well as a threat to our public parks and home gardens. It is important to emphasise that combatting this threat requires a unified effort between state governments, the Australia Plague Locust Commission, landowners, local councils and natural resource management boards.

In June, I announced the government's $12.8 million emergency response to locusts. The government strategy in shaping this response is clear: to remove the threat of locust hoppers by strategic aerial and ground spraying such as to prevent locusts from taking to wing and ultimately minimising their southern migration. I think most members are aware that we have to get them at the hopper stage. If we leave it too late and they take to wing, we will be spraying them, in some instances, a little too close to harvest, and we then risk the very grave threat of contamination of export grain, and if contamination is detected, it will not be loaded onto ships for export. So, the threat to our export trade is quite significant, and so we have to intervene forcibly and early and prevent their moving beyond the hopper stage.

The success of the overarching state government response to locusts also depends on farmers and landowners regularly informing the local control centres where and when they spot significant bands of hoppers. The Victorians have just detected one which I think is 18 to 20 kilometres in length. So, we have a real threat this season. This issue of identification and then conveying of information to local control centres is vitally important, and it is a message that we will be reinforcing over the coming weeks. The feeding in of this information to our control centres will then govern the deployment of aircraft and local spraying contractors.

Extensive aerial spraying, with the use of up to seven aircraft, will be done by Biosecurity SA in open pastoral country and cropping areas of the Mid North and the Southern Flinders Range region and in parts of the Riverland, Murray Mallee region. As most members would be aware, aerial spraying will not be possible over much of the Riverland due to proximity to watercourses, other sensitive sites and townships. In this area, emphasis will be on the on-ground spraying campaign by landowners, NRM boards and councils.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: I have an interjection. In relation to parks, we have that very much under control and I can give you a briefing. For ground spraying, the government will provide landowners with a capped rebate of $8.25 per hectare. In most cases, this means around $2,500 towards the cost of chemicals for spraying hoppers and for labour, if they employ people to spray—and this has been widely welcomed within the primary production sector. Up to $1 million will also be available for councils to help with spraying through the local government disaster fund, and this is largely for very wet road verges. Two regional locust control centres have been established, with one at Orroroo having been active since Monday of this week and Loxton going live from Monday 20 September.

These local control centres will undertake surveillance and spraying operations, which will be coordinated from the state control centre in Glenside, with over 130 staff involved in the overall response. That is 130 people on the ground on a full-time basis.

Since May, the government has been consulting with community reference groups in the Mid North and Riverland and the Murray Mallee to keep landowners, councils, NRM boards and other individuals informed and prepared for the operation ahead.

In July and early August, about 1,000 people also attended Biosecurity SA organised information sessions on locust response. As members of the opposition have commented, there was an emerging issue in terms of spraying in national parks and that has been resolved to everybody's satisfaction, and I have received that feedback from our community reference groups.

PIRSA has also set up a website for information on locusts and the response program and, basically, that address is the PIRSA website \locusts. We also have a newsletter and an SMS alert service for people wanting more information about the progress of the locust response. PIRSA has built up significant expertise over the years in managing locust outbreaks and this is going to be put into effect. We do have a challenge that is unprecedented in that we are actually having to deal in the Riverland with horticultural production and proximity to large townships and waterways.

In closing, the $12.8 million program this government has allocated and the cooperation of landowners, local government and NRM boards, I am confident, will allow the coordination of a whole-of-community response to significantly impact on the evolution of the locust. As I said, it is vitally important that over that six-week window of opportunity we get them on the ground while they are banding. There is a probability that we will have a 20 per cent breakout, and that is going to constitute a whole series of other challenges.

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